Yep, the
deed's done. Er, it will be come March 11th, and there's no avoiding it. Unless, of course, you lock in a lower rate now, but we suppose that's the point of
Sirius XM coming out with this information over a month in advance. As of now, both XM and Sirius' separate websites have "lockin" pages hosted up, with XM's noting that after March 11th, subscriptions will no longer include internet listening gratis. For those who renew their existing contract now, you'll be grandfathered in and continue to listen for free; after that deadline, it'll be $2.99 per month for the premium (and only) stream. Over at Sirius, we're told that the SIRIUS Everything plan will rise from $6.99 per month to $8.99 per month unless you lock yourself in prior to the eleventh day of March. So, should you stay or should you go?
[Via
The Wolf Web]
Read - XM's page
Read - Sirius' page
posted Jan 27th 2009 10:54PM
are you sirius?!
As sure as the taXMan...
I am fondly recalling all the discussions XM and Sirius had with the FCC to convince them that the merger was a good thing for consumers.
Now that I can get Slacker and Pandora on my iPhone I'm never looking back, and for free no less. I have it hooked up in my car and stream on the internet to my Airport Expresses at home and on my computer at the office.
Sirius/XM, you were nice when I needed you but now I can get truly personalized radio for free everywhere I want it so you are no longer needed.
Would someone PLEASE explain to me all of this “Last.FM, Pandora, Slacker” talk? Don’t you need internet connectivity all over to listen to that? And where is the imaginative ubiquitous internet network everyone is using? WiFi aint cutting it And don’t say cellular either since you either pay through the arse or are limited (even for “unlimited” data plans). And what about content beyond just music? I like Sports, Mad Dog, O&A, Bubba, Stern, Martha and Oprah (that’s right I said it, Oprah ;^). during my commute. Just sayin...
What about Lifetime subscribers?
Complete garbage. They are asking existing customers to bail them out, pay ahead and they might not make it, great. I'd be very cautious buying a life-time subscription. I do love the service and I was fooled into thinking the merger may help reduce cost. You'd think if they lowered the price they'd gain a greater proportion of returns.
I'd settle for CD quality satellite radio. Forget CD quality streams. There is so much compression going on in XM it is nearly worthless.
Totally agree. There was a big transition 2 or 3 years ago where the sound quality just went to crap. Pretty much stopped listening to music on sat rad after that. I kept it for the talk, which I don't listen to anymore because now I'm addicted to podcasts on my ipod. I'm about to cancel my service, after being one of the most hardcore XM fans a few years ago.
Yeah, so that merger was going to lower prices? Sure. Now that there's no competition in the satellite radio market this was bound to happen.
Any venture capitalists out there want to front the funds to get Digitally Imported Radio (digitallyimported.com, di.fm) broadcasted via satellite? That I'd pay for.
I hope you people realized that if these companies didn't merge they would be already out of business. The fact they they are still around after they merged is anything short of amazing.
It's a failed business model that can't support itself and actually has a stagnant customer base. If the only way you get new customers is by forcing them to have it for free, you won't survive.
Goodbye XM/Sirius, we won't miss you.
And I thought a monopoly on satellite radio was going to be a good thing
Once again big companies are allowed to merge into a monopoly and consumers lose: We get less and pay more. I won't be renewing my XM subscription.
If I stay there will be trouble; if I go there will be double.
So you are staying then?
So if we get grandfathered in, we get free internet streaming, all rates stay the same. But do we get stuck with the old quality or have to pay for the "near" CD quality?
we where all thinking the merger may help reduce cost hahah what a bunch of a**holes. way to pissed off the people that help you build membership, i will never tell anther friend about Sirius again. back to my Ipod.
I've been with xm for 5 years.Last year I cancelled and I am not going back.Free podcast rocks!
Ditto.
oh noes, thats my birthday.
That makes it your fault. Thanks!
Definitely your fault. This is exactly why I was born a month premature.
Nobody wants to pay more for it...but keep in mind in 5 years my XM rates NEVER went up. It's basically a $3 increase after 5 years...no other service I have has gone up that little. The company clearly needs cash and is doing what they need to do, I can't really hate on them.
If you're a legacy XM customer, call, get to their cancellation department, and tell them you're not willing to pay the new rates, so you've decided you want to cancel now. They should offer you a deal for $77/yr. If they don't, tell them a friend of yours has a deal for $77/yr and you feel you're paying too much. They should offer it to you. I've done this for 3 years with XM. It's about as much as I'm willing to pay for what has become worse and worse over time. This year will probably be my last as a subscriber.
You do realize that if you say that you've technically admitted that you were trying to defraud them.
Now, whether they call your bluff or not, I don't know.
What part of that is fraud? I have a friend that has that rate ... and if they don't offer it to me, I'll cancel. And for anyone that doesn't have a friend that has that rate .... Hi, I'm Dave. Nice to meet you.
Same here. $77 rate for the last three years...I think it's called the "Win Back" promotion. Each year I tell them I'll only renew at this price and they give it to me. Last renewal was pre-merger however. As soon as I have to pay $1 more I'll cancel and just use my iPod .
@ jupiterthunder
Might want to head over to the dictionary and look up fraud there sport.
What about those of us who have lifetime subscriptions?
* Current lifetime subscriptions will keep free online listening for this radio plan.
I love Sirius | XM Satellite Radio. I've been with them for about 2 years now and couldn't imagine my hour long commute without it.
I recently signed up for the XM + Best of Sirius, so now I get to enjoy all of my favorite programming PLUS Howard Stearn!
Long Live Sirius | XM!
But seriously, the prices could be lower... That wouldn't hurt too much, would it? At least I was able to lock in my account and still receive my online listening for the next 3 years! :D
I've been paying $77 a year for XM for the past so many years. Not really planning on paying more when it's time to renew so this could be the end.
had the service for 6 or so years... liked it when it was the best option. there are just too many other ways too listen to music for free. they ended up offering 6 months free on 2 radios... it was hard to turn down.
What's with that Sirius link not going to sirius.com? f.chtah.com? What the hell is that? Call me crazy, but stuff like this smacks like phishing to me. Why is it asking for an account # and phone #? On the XM link you just have to supply a username and password...
The form submits to www.cheetahmail.com. Looks like a marketing company sent the link out.
Hi Pete,
gman is correct. Experian CheetahMail is a reputable email marketing service provider, and we use the domain "f.chtah.com" for a number of clients, including XM/Sirius. I assure you that the data you submit is secure. If you would like further information, I'd refer you to www.cheetahmail.com or www.emailresponsibly.com.
Hope this helps! And for the record, I think it's worth keeping the streaming service! XM and Sirius are pretty sweet services.
-b
Last.fm FTW.
This is the last nail in the coffin for me. In a few months when I stop commuting 400 miles every other weekend, I'm out.
I'm stuck with them for a few years. We don't have anything worth listening too on the radio in Chicago. I have my iPOD hooked up but I haven't added anything to it for over a year.
I'm be staying with them (XM legacy). Been with them for almost 4 years now and have no radio worth listening to around here. Plus I travel a lot with my job and it's nice to listen to the same station over a 200 mile trip if I so choose. I didn't know about the $77 a year deal, I will sure mention it and try to get them to honor it. In March of 2007 I paid almost $300 for a 2 year subscription- came out to about $11.33 a month. I will gladly pay $77 per year!
Some of you are peculiar. No one is being told that they have to pay the additional. If you use the webstream, then i guess this should be a bit of a bother, but if you don't then the increase is moot. I do not use it because when I'm at my PC, there are more than enough alternatives with better interfaces and better sound. I''m passionate about my Sirius radio but about the only thing I tune to is Sirius 128 (NASCAR radio). I'll hit up comedy and music on occassion and sports if I can't get to a TV. All in the car. I don't have a radio in home because I don't have an exposure that's unobstructed so my in home signal is awful. Anyway, the programming that I listen to the most isn't available on the web stream so, no loss for me.
You had best go read the website. That little double star is noted like this at the bottom:
** Pricing applies to "Everything" and "Best of Packages".
So, you most likely have the XM Everything pack. Thus, you will get the fee. If you want to downgrade to the family pack or news pack or talk pack..no fee.
Sirius used to be worth the money. Since the merger the programming sucks.
My wife hates it now and so does my kid.
I was thinking of dropping the 3 units I have. Now I am sure of it.
I can podcast and have a much better time.
The new programmers can keep there 2 bucks a month.
What about those of us who paid upwards of $250 for Sirius Stillettos that advertised the ability to stream internet content without mentioning an additional fee? "Bait & switch" would be a good term to describe this POS. I wish they had some CLASS and took some proactive ACTION for customer service.
That's actually a really good point. I bet they'll offer customers a deal, get sued, or something.
AGREED:
last.fm FTW!!!!!
Sirius/XM is a dead man walking. Buh bye now.
I wonder if I can continue using those National exec elite coupons for free monthly subscriptions to the online service.
I hope that those in charge lose a lot of money when satellite radio fails.
One by one, they've abandoned every promise they ever made. Crappy sound quality, commercials, reduction in programming choices, censorship, sounds like FM... except you have to pay for it!
get iphone 3g... install the required apps for online radio. its free... and best way to at listening to online radio.
No surprise, once the competition was gone then the price increases begin...
Anyway it's offerings and particularly the coverage in the Bay Area on Sirius is just terrible !!!
Will not be renewing my contract...
Pandora and a few other apps on my iPhone have opened my eyes...
People need to calm down. This rate increase only affects customers that have more than 1 subscription, or if you want to listen on the web. And if you want to listen on the web, then that means you're at a computer and why not listen to all your illegally downloaded MP3s instead? Lets not forget about the negligible sound quality difference if you're listening to any of the talk stations.
People seem to forget that the merger didn't take place so Sirius XM could lower rates...that would just be bad for business. The idea is to make money, not throw it away, and if you look at how much the company stands to gain from this very modest price increase, it makes sense. Calm down, and stop complaining.
Sigh. I was an XM subscriber for the past four years, up until November. Multiple radios. But the economy slowdown caused me to look at all the nickels and dimes including all my entertainment spending and saw that I was only using XM for basically one channel (158) and it just wasn't worth the cost. XM barely tried to offer me anything to stay. So much for retention. It was like they didn't care.
Local radio is godawful. There are many times I regret having to go back to it. But XM is just not worth the money any more. I wish them well.
I can't believe a group of supposedly intelligent people could sit in a board room and think this idea was anything but suicide. It seems to me that customers affected by this fit into two camps - those that listen to internet radio and those that don't. The ones that don't listen, don't care and won't pay the $3 a month anyway. There's no extra revenue there. The ones that do care about internet radio are probably well aware of the alternate ways of accessing it and very likely have an iPhone or other means of listening that can even stream in their car. So a high percentage of those people won't pay either, and may even drop the service if they think that internet radio accessed for free is all they need. So the net result of this is little added revenue that will likely be more than lost from dropped subscribers. if they need the money, they would have been better off raising their base rate by $0.25.
Just to be clear, their website says the new pricing applies to the "everything and best of" packs. Guess what? If you have normal XM...you have the XM everything pack. Thus, it appears you will automagically begin to be billed for the extra fee...even if you have no use for the internet radio package.
I have every song I'll ever want to hear including the new singles that isnt even out yet, I will never have a need for another bill each month for music.
I think it's time to pack up the sat radio receivers and use my iPhone/iPods exclusively. The confusing pricing, lack of consumer communications, and over-priced services have all culminated to a totally lack-luster customer experience.
Too bad, XM-Sirius, Sirius-XM, (whatever you're branded as now) you f'd it up!
Screw it, I'm going with the competition. Doh!
Who could have predicted this? 8*|
All of you are specifically mentioning music on Sirius-XM and the alternatives. However, I listen to Sirius for the talk services like BBC, NPR, Stern, and many other stations that I haven't found other ways to easily stream and listen to. Sure, podcasts are easy, but having one source to listen to all of the talk stations just isn't possible. Is anyone aware of such a service? I would easily cancel Sirius if I could find one.
I'm in the same boat as you. I'm an avid Stern listener, and have been with Sirius since 2003 (before Stern signed on). Yes you can get good commercial free music at no charge, but what about the other content? Sucks to have to pay more. I wish Stern's contract allowed him to podcast.
What to do?
Declining Economy, and Raising Prices. Perfect Business Model.
Headlines for March: Sirius XM Lays off 1,000s of employees after service tanks.
Ever since the merger the quality of my XM subscription has been dragged down by Sirius. They are constantly advertising Sirius and their "lifetime package", which you can now save $100 fyi....
Stop the ads if you expect me to stay... let alone pay more.
i just got done cancelling my service. Not so much for the rate increase, but the whole baloney about commercial free music. True, there may not be commercials, but the DJ's on some channels spend just as much time blabbering about the music, doing entertainment reports, listing the top 5 ring tones (??!!) of the week, sorry i passed!
The end is nigh.
I guess they want everyone to switch to Pandora...
Pandora Radio over iPhone 3G is looking more attractive by the minute ... I'm still pissed that the XM-Sirius merger nixed Sirius Blues and replaced with with XM's Bluesville. I know they were thinking "oh, well there's two blues stations, we only need one" but if they knew a damned thing about blues they would see that the programming and sub-genres were completely different. I picked Sirius for my car because of channel 74. I'm now seriously considering dropping the subscription entirely thanks to channel 74 and this rate hike is certainly weighing in.
I will be gone from this bullshit company as soon as Howard leaves. Im so tired of their bullshit
How about the sell just the internet feed for 1.99? I'd get that just to have Howard Stern on my iPhone and at work. Although I can get it for free, I feel a wee bit guilty.
I would pay $5/month for Stern only. The rest of the content can be replaced by Slacker and other internet radio services. Oh, the NFL games are good too. Would miss that some if I canceled my Sirius subscription.
I just got done cancelling my Sirius. 90% of my sirius usage is over the internet in the office, I will go to listening to bubba in the morning live on FM radio, Pandora for music, and i'll just go back to downloading the stern show on the binaries newsgroups commercial free like I did before he went to sirius.
bye bye sirius.
I dumped Dish programming thinking I would subscribe to Sirius directly, but no sooner had I done that, XM/Sirius merger happened, they changed their lineup and now the increase. So basically, I’m fine with Pandora and Podcasts for $1/month.
I'm just wondering, I have a lifetime subscription because it came with the audio package in my car (it's the only reason I even listen anymore), I wonder if my rates for internet radio are locked in? I hope so...
"I'll just use my iPhone and xxxxx to listen!"
Great, but you *do* know that you can't make/receive calls while using data over 3g/EDGE, right? If you're on a 3hr business commute your clients may get a little peeved when all their calls go directly to voicemail for those 3 hours you're on the move.
I'll be keeping both my subs. My dad's receiver's the only one affected by the $2 price hike (really, it's 1/2 the price of a pack of smokes), and I don't actually mind getting the higher quality stream. I will say I'd prefer the option of high/low streaming, as lowbit works over even dialup speed connections, making it very versatile.
As for raising/lowering rates, I can only assume that those complaining haven't actually seen the new packages (a couple as low as $9.99/mo), compared to the previous $12.95 single package. Not to mention that now you can do ala carte, which wasn't an option previously.
But hey, if internet radio and breaching your cell data agreement (yea, read it, there is a cap) is worth that extra $2 a month, by all means, do what you will. I for one prefer to hear jocks, talk radio, and a good mix of music. It's still the best thing on radio, and it's still a better value than tying up my cell phone while making a long drive.
You CAN make and receive calls with 3G, you cannot with EDGE.
I stand corrected.
I love XM and certain Sirius channels. In total, i only listen to about 20 channels. I got XM because i love listening to Opie & Anthony and Ron & Fez. Find me a better (cheaper) alternative to listening to these guys, and i'll take it, until then, XM/Sirius got me by the cojones. :-(
I just called and told them I want to cancel because of the rate hike. The lady said the rate hike only applies to the 2nd additional receiver. But also the internet streaming is no longer free. I thought about it for a second and told her I wanted to cancel anyways. Then she offered me a "new year special" of 50% off for the year at a one time fee of $77 and internet streaming is included. I took the deal.
I've been a fan of Sirius for years. I even paid the extra $2.99/mo to get the premium streams (I guess all the hubub is that they are eliminating the free stream). However they're increasing the price for a 2nd unit (which I got for my wife) and now I'll have to kick in another $2.99 for HER account to listen on the internet. Let me get this straight, $12.99 + $3.99 for BoXM + $8.99 for 2nd receiver + $2.99 for my internet + $2.99 for HER internet?
Wait a minute, what am I spending $35/mo on when I just got laid off?
Are you getting the picture, Sirius?